A top 75 player that can’t put a team on his back to advance deep into the playoffs consistently. He’s an undersized ball dominant guard who plays zero defense
The team that traded Clyde for used up Otis Thorpe was a completely different roster when they got to the WCF. Trader Bob had gone to the merry band of mercenaries by then. Banged up , hanging in there , Arvydas Sabonis from the 1995-96 season and Jermaine O'Neal were the only drafted key contributors to those teams. It's not like that team was made up of homegrown talent.
The CBA is a lot different than it was 3 decade ago. Can't rebuild the way Paul/Trader Bob did back then.
That's all irrelevant. We dealt a top 75 player and completely rebuilt the team and went young. We acquired Rider, Sheed, Briant Grant, Kenny Anderson, and Alvin Williams. We blew up the Clyde/Terry/Kersey team and completely started over, and that's what we need to do now.
And we could get a hell of a lot more for Dame than we got for Clyde. That's not the point. The point is that sometimes it's better to move on.
No player outside of top 5 all-timers could ride Harkless, Aminu, and Kanter to the NBA finals. And for all the negative qualities you listed, he's still highly likely to be better than anyone else currently on the roster or who we draft in the next decade.
And sometimes it's better to stick with what you've got. Glad that we've cleared up those two possibilities!
completely different CBA back then. Not the trade restrictions of today, and almost no limits on signing players. And that was back in the days when PA was spending like crazy. Genesis of SPAM
I think if we land Wemby at #1 then it actually will keep Dame here. At that point we've secured our future with Shae and Wemby. So we can then address our present because Shae and Wemby will contribute immediately and even more down the road. We would then be able to guarantee the Bulls either the 23rd pick in this draft or an unprotected first next year... then trade up to 4 first round picks Ant and Nurk to get a second established all star and improve the bench. We could re-sign Jerami solidifying our starting lineup, re-sign Matisse further building our bench. We could take an upperclassman with the 43rd pick to fill a whole on the bench and use the TPMLE to fill another hole on the bench. I'm not saying that if we land the number one pick that we can't go into a total youth rebuild what I'm saying is that the number one pick seems to be the only one we could keep and still satisfy Dame which would therefore mean being in win now mode... like the David Robinson Spurs.
This idea that we trade Dame when he desperately wants to stay is hilarious. We would have a terrible reputation. If we use both picks and that is not what Dame wanted then the team could trade him while seemingly respecting him and he could get traded while claiming he wanted to finish his career here. That works but if he's cool with the direction the team is headed and the team trades him anyway it will be a PR nightmare.
Dame is set to make $250 mil in the next four seasons. That contract is virtually untradable. He knew that when his agent asked for the extension. This is all so silly. Play out the ping pong balls. That was the goal the last month. That is the path.
The goal the last two months was to get the best asset possible out of the draft. I think Joe saying that sometimes you have to live with the risk that you might be trading a 19 year old that could be great down the road is something you have to do sometimes, means that if it's not Wemby, the pick is on its way out. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I can tell you this though, you are wrong if you think Dame after what he did this season is untradable. The guy is very tradable but I think that the first option that Joe will explore is how to keep Dame here and happy... and the only way to do that is to get us much much closer to contention than we have been basically in Dame's entire career.
Dame makes $4m/year more than Ruby Gobert, who got traded for young talent and a bunch of firsts just a year ago. No clue how you could call him untradable.
Yes, exactly! Look at your assets, look at what you can get for your assets, and then make the best deal(s) possible. No need to be set on a fixed outcome of Dame having to be traded or having to play the next 5 years in Portland.
I don't see that at all. A large portion of posters here have made comments that's their ok with trading Dame, and everyone here I'd call a die hard fan. Personally I'm ok keeping Dame as well as trading him. I just want either direction executed well. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc follow up moves need to be long term good decisions with a balanced risk/reward profile. Trading or not trading Dame isn't a failure or success on its own. There are many ways to screw up either direction or have success with either direction.
I very much agree with the last part in doing what's best for the franchise and that trading or not trading Dame isn't going to be enough to compete. What I find odd is the a lot of "die-hard" fans on here that are opening to trading Dame are the same ones who think ownership sucks, the GM sucks, and the coaching sucks. So they want to get rid of the best leader and player in the organization, and put all the faith in the hands of ownership/front office/coaching staff to maximize the return for Dame, then identify, acquire, develop, and retain young talent. That doesn't make any sense to me. If I thought the organization was setup in a way that we could do all those things, I think I'd be much higher on the trade Dame camp. Then again, if the organization was successful in all three of those areas, Dame would already have a contender around him.
What’s the alternative? Wait for Jody to sell the team? Dame will only have high value for another couple or three years at most. We don’t have the luxury of time.
